A Day For New Beginnings

Today was a day of transition. I attended the retirement fete for Dale[[starto]]. There was a lot of sincere love in that room as Dale’s family, friends, co-workers past and present, and many of the young women she watched over during her tenure as a sorority house-mother gathered to thank her for making a difference. Fortunately for me, I’m counted as family, so I’ll still be seeing her. So, from my perspective, not so much an ending as a passage.

That’s in contrast to Tess, DLT #2. She’s leaving for the Garden State in a few days. That she’s also shipping her horse means that it’s both the end of one, and the start of another, of life’s chapters. That is as it should be for a young woman just starting down the path that might eventually conclude with family, friends, and others gathering for her retirement forty or fifty years from now.

I’m proud of Tess’ youthful courage. I love her for it and so many other things about her. But the world is for the young. The trust we have in it is always transferred to them. Last year, on her birthday, I gave her the world (well, a globe) and told her to grab onto whatever she could. Now she’s reaching out for a big ol’ handful. Yay, Tess.

Since it may be a while until we see each other again, we had a private moment for our until-we-see-each-other-agains. Yeah, I welled up a little. This woman, who I remember girlishly tossing cartwheels in the park so-many and not-enough years ago, is setting out on a new beginning. It was worth a tear or several.

I am a fan of new beginnings, and an even bigger fan of loving people. Sometimes that means not seeing them for a while–but you never ever lose them. They are with you, always. So, you can never say good-bye, but can always wish for them health, safety, love, and: “Fair winds and following seas.”